Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Randomized Experiment

The results are in from the Talent Transfer Initiative, a high-profile intervention that started in 2009. This randomized-experiment study, conducted by Mathematica, tracks the impact of moving effective teachers to disadvantaged elementary and middle schools. The intervention was implemented in ten school districts in seven states. A $20,000 bonus was paid to each participating teacher over a two-year period, in which they were expected to remain in their designated low-performing schools. Districts were able to fill 88 percent of the targeted vacancies with high performers, but they had to approach over 1,500 of them to get the eighty-one they needed—meaning just 5 percent were willing to make the switch. Analysts found that the transfers had a positive impact on math and reading test scores in the targeted elementary classrooms, up to a quarter of a standard deviation, which equates in this study to moving up each student by 4 to 10 percentile points relative to all students in their states. Yet impacts varied across districts, and there were none at the middle school level. The incentive also had a positive impact on teacher retention rates during the two-year payout period, but after that, the treatment teachers were no more or less likely to leave their schools than their peers. Still, this study indicates that effective teachers can indeed be effective in other settings. In other words, talent is transferable.